


More Than the Moon Loves the Stars?

by handschuhmaus



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Accidental Child Acquisition, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - fluffy, Bedtime Stories, Domestic Fluff, Gen, Questionable Childcare, Tickle Fights, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, What am I doing?, in which Bane has a marshmallow interior, it's bathtime now stop splashing the bathwater everywhere, rather nonsensical picture books, the narration and the sith are a bit mean towards the child but affectionately, the physical appearance of the please makes no difference
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-25
Updated: 2015-05-25
Packaged: 2018-03-31 06:20:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3967660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/handschuhmaus/pseuds/handschuhmaus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bane tries to read Zannah's small charge a bedtime story. Things go slightly awry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	More Than the Moon Loves the Stars?

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Encounter with a Snake](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/117424) by hestiaA1. 



> I, ah... feel I should assure you that the attitude the story takes towards the little nuisance (of which that is an example) does not have anything to do with the child's appearance... (well, except perhaps the "sticky" appellation, but this is, hopefully, a purely transient attribute)
> 
> I'm pretty sure this brief distraction I banged out has a lot to do with the work listed as inspiration ;)
> 
> (also, if you should happen to be in a sensitive state of mind about it for any reason, there is an allusion to a parent's death.)

"'Do you love me more than the moon?' the baby shaak asked its mother. 'More than the moon loves the stars,' said mama shaak," Darth Bane cleared his throat and tried to shift around the small blanket-wrapped bundle which took up an unlikely amount of his lap, all in order to turn the page and continue to read the inane story to the small but demanding tyrant.

A head covered in brown curls, childishly disproportionate to the small body, butted the Sith on the chin. Sadly this book was the child's predetermined favorite, and neither Zannah nor he had been successful in instilling an appreciation of less ridiculously saccharine tales. "Dost thou love me, Dethy?" it lisped, and as soon as it negotiated its way around in his lap, to a much less advantageous position for viewing the pastel illustrations, planted a small sticky brown hand on Des's jaw and turned big puppy-dog brown eyes on him. 

It was enough to make him rue the day, only a fortnight ago, that he had accepted Zannah's inferior logic and agreed to let the whelp stay. The cherry on top was the child's antiquated speech patterns, from some sect its actual grandparents belonged to, and the dreadful lisping portmanteau it had made of his name and the infantile title "daddy", which he was not and would never be. But Zannah had felt some responsibility for being indirectly involved in the death of the single father she had been dating, and the tyke _was_ Force-sensitive.

"Now, you need to stop splashing suds all over the place," Zannah suddenly directed the kid, surprising her master. "Or I'll make _you_ clean it up." She walked over, a couple of stray drips from her sodden tunic falling on the floor, and ruffled the kid's hair.

"Zannah--" her proper name, how had she managed that? "Dethy won't say he loves me." To its credit, the child had accepted them as caretakers quite quickly.

"Manipulative little wretch, ain't ya?" Zannah returned in an affected accent. "Darth Bane, I believe we shall have to seek vengeance for these demands."

Playing along, with one Force-assisted hand Bane hefted the child in the air by its belly, dumping book and blanket from his lap, and swung it back and forth, all the while resolutely refusing to make appropriate sounds.

The child giggled so much that the Sith wondered if their charge might sicken itself, only to be beseeched with pleas of "More! More!" when Bane stopped.

Zannah swept both small human and blanket into her lap, hugging the child tightly to her chest. "Look what we've done, got the kid so excited there'll be no getting to sleep any time soon, huh? I say you have to read as many bedtime stories as wanted in compensation, Bane."

The curly head perked up at this and launched its body in a frankly surprising tackle-hug at the older Sith, knocking his breath from his mouth. Zannah took advantage to catch him unawares and plant the command in his subconscious to carry the child towards her bed. He was not especially eager to fight in front of the child and so did not resist just yet. 

His apprentice, and supposed sister to the citizens of this planet, proved to want to gang up on him, seconding the tackle hug and pushing him onto the bed.

"Let's tickle him," she suggested impishly to the child, and several uncomfortable minutes ensued for Bane as he tried not to laugh while being assaulted by fingers on his ribs, elbows, and eventually, by Zannah, the back of his knee. This earned her a reflex kick in the knee, and she abruptly stopped and took hold of the child's hands.

"That'll teach me to roughhouse with you," she reflected ruefully.

Bane sighed and put an arm around his apprentice's shoulders and his other hand on the kid's shoulder. "Just don't do it again, apprentice."

**Author's Note:**

> ...should this even be finished? 
> 
> ~~_no, Mouse, probably it should not_ ~~


End file.
